The charge that the US “press” has endangered American troops by publishing the facts about military events on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has no basis in fact.

US military raids into areas of Pakistan controlled by the Taliban have been an open secret for years. The American public is among the last to know about this. Pakistani military leaders sympathetic to Al Quaeda have been aware of it since the raids began and they have been a major sore point in Pakistan’s internal politics.

The recent burst of news stories about the US helicopter raid into Pakistan on Sept. 3, and reports of missiles fired across the border, appears to have started with the story headlined “Right at the Edge,” published in the New York Times Magazine on Sept. 5, 2008. The reporter who wrote that story is Dexter Filkins, a war correspondent who has covered Afghanistan since 1998 and Iraq since 2003. Filkins’ memoir of his years in Iraq will be published Tuesday Sept. 16, 2008. The title is The Forever War. Excerpts from this important new book have appeared in recent issues of the Times (www.nyt.com). Lee Hamilton, co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, reviewed the book in yesterday’s Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/books/12book.html

The latest element in this grim story is the report today (Friday) that the president has authorized intensified raids on Al Quaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan in the hope of capturing or killing Osama bin Laden before the November election.

While, in this instance, it's not really letting out a big secret, there have been times when the press has shown someone's hand way before it should have been shown. They do it time and again in police investigations.

I guess that's the price we pay for freedom of the press... but once in a while they should just shut up about certain things.